National Australia Bank (NAB) has cleared up some market speculation about what it was interested in buying after it announcing to the market it may acquire ABN Amro NV’s Australia and New Zealand businesses.
NAB announced on Friday that it was interested in buying ABN’s local operation from its owner, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).
“There can be no certainty that a transaction will result,” a NAB statement to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) said on Friday.
Analysts had been speculating NAB was interested in buying BankWest, owned by United Kingdom lender HBOS or Citigroup’s local financial planning business, Citi Smith Barney.
A NAB spokesperson declined to comment if it was still interested in the other businesses.
A Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) spokesperson was not available to comment on speculation that it may rival NAB for the ABN businesses.
The acquisition would boost NAB’s wealth management arm MLC as ABN’s local unit has a financial planning arm called ABN Amro Morgans.
ABN Amro Morgans planners specialise in self-managed superannuation fund and broader superannuation advice.
NAB chief executive John Stewart said the company he led was looking to buy good quality assets amid the global credit crunch on May 12.
ABN’s Australian and New Zealand businesses mainly offer wholesale banking, investment banking, merger advisory, reverse mortgages, structured products and stock research.
ABN was originally a Dutch institution until it was acquired by Scotland-based RBS and Belgium-headquartered bank Fortis for nearly $120 billion, the biggest bank buyout in history.
RBS and Fortis won the bid for the former Amsterdam-based ABN last October, as the United States credit crisis snowballed and forced banks around the world to so far absorb $420 billion in losses.
RBS and Fortis have stated that they are looking to divest assets to strengthen their balance sheets amid a series of capital raisings.
